The present disclosure relates generally to performance evaluation, including the evaluation of turbine engine performance. More particularly, the disclosure relates to systems and methods for evaluating the performance of turbine engine systems and subsystems, including, but not limited to, turbofan, turboshaft, and turboprop engines, and industrial gas turbine engines.
More generally, this disclosure also relates to performance evaluation for testing systems, including test cells and other testing configurations for turbine engine systems. Suitable applications include, but are not limited to, the test configurations described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,837,890, 6,725,912, 6,748,800, and 8,863,895, each of which is incorporated by reference herein, in the entirety and for all purposes.
These approaches include standard practices that have produced acceptable results for decades. The procedures have been incrementally improved as engine manufacturers and customers (e.g., airlines and power companies) require more precise answers to meet competitive demands. Better transducers, control of the test environment, increased measurement accuracy, and many other factors have now been improved to the point where additional gains become increasingly difficult, and incremental improvement of the individual elements may be unlikely to produce substantial results. As the industry continues to strive for further increases in accuracy, therefor, a new paradigm for and approach to the measurement process may be required.